Players have gotten into trouble for homophobic comments and threatening fans. One tweeter was sentenced to jail for racially insulting Fabrice Muamba shortly after his collapse, and others have recently been exposed as Ched Evans sympathisers after he was imprisoned for raping a 19-year-old woman.

Away from the darker side of the Twittersphere, there is an acerbic streak of supporters who, although separated by success, are united by their idealism in football returning to a better place.

So here is a list of 50 must-follow footballing folk on Twitter and some of their finest 140 character-max efforts...